Square Secures Patent Allowing Merchants to Accept Cryptocurrency as Payment

There’s nothing new about cryptocurrency point of sale (POS) services. Indeed, BitPay started offering their merchant payment network as early as 2011, and were processing over $1 million worth of Bitcoin (BTC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) payments daily by 2014. But a new patent granted to Square Inc. offers the possibility of a crypto payment network going truly mainstream, and as such could turn out to be a huge development for the sector.

The patent concerns a payment platform enabling consumers to pay in a wide range of supported currencies, including BTC, Ether (ETH) and a number of other cryptocurrencies, and for funds to be automatically converted in real time so that merchants can receive payments in their choice of supported currency. Initially submitted in September of last year, the proposal was granted by the Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) on August 21st.

Crucially the network will employ an ingenious approach to substantially reduce the latency of payments and minimise transaction times to bring them onto a level playing field with the likes of Visa. The network proposes to achieve this by developing its own private blockchain to which transactions would be recorded, only later to be updated to the relevant public blockchain. Whilst Square acknowledges that the proposed system would be vulnerable to double-spending attacks, it would be the network itself – rather than consumers – who shouldered the risk.

With their notable focus on software and hardware-based payments, San Francisco-based Square Inc. has pioneered a number of mobile payment systems and apps enabling new kinds of transaction between individuals and businesses. CEO Jack Dorsey is a very vocal supporter of Bitcoin and has gone on record as saying that the internet “will have a native currency” and furthermore commented “I hope it will be bitcoin.”